Pages

June 17, 2009

Reader Inquiry: Construction At Noe Courts

It all started with a simple question from reader BG:

Do you know what's going on at the 24th & Douglass kids' park? The internal perimeter now has construction easels woven together with "caution" tape. Is the city finally putting up the funds to add a protective banister (my understanding is that the funding wasn't there initially, so they had left this out).

We decided to try San Francisco's new SF311 Twitter service. Within hours they confirmed a fence will be built, but couldn't say when. They quickly referred us to Rec & Parks (415-831-2700), who in turn not-so-quickly referred us to Eric Andersen, Manager of Neighborhood Service Area 5 (PDF map). Mr Andersen referred us to Marvin Yee, who gave us the answer BG was looking for:

[Recreation and Parks Department] is waiting for a cost proposal to install a 3' high chainlink fence along the south and east border of the play area. When the playground was renovated in 2008, there was insufficient City funding to add this item. However, the City is interested in getting this item funded. The fund source and a construction schedule is not yet determined at this time. I should have more information in about 2 weeks. Please feel free to check back with me then. Thanks!

Mr Yee gave us permission to list him as a contact for more information on this project:

2
comments:

As a mom of 2 kids who frequent this park all the time, I've got to say that the construction easels are almost worse than the cliffs that they are protecting. There is nothing more appealing to a little person! I'm also surprised (though I shouldn't be) that the fence wasn't put up beforehand. Seriously? How much does it cost to put up a chain link fence around this tiny little park? And while we're at it, can we discuss the ration of dog space to child space in that park? It's really ...uh...unfair?(Please keep in mind that the dogs have their own, entire, huge dog park up the hill off of Douglass.) Oh well......